To Become a Hunter
by space cadet4
Summary: Crimson Pryandomar, unwilling, lazy and somewhat naive, forced into attending a military school to turn him into the top class ranger that his father wants him to be. Unfortunately this is not a good time to join the ranks of the fighting elite
1. Default Chapter

Okay, I got a little bored of my other story, and also, couldn't think of a way to continue it that pleased me. To be honest I was getting more and more unhappy with it, it'll probably get finished sometime in the next millennia, but for now, I'm doing a new story in the same world, hope it's good enough to make up for the temporary death of my other fic.

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Crimson slammed the car door shut, a little harder than necessary, and was treated to the sight of his dad giving him the finger as he drove away, leaving Crimson stranded in a part of pioneer 2 that he had never been to before. Crimson looked around, taking in the new surroundings.

Actually they were almost the same as his home block, big grey buildings that seemed to climb upwards into eternity, cars that flew overhead so fast that you could feel the wind off of them from a hundred feet away and above those, the bluish shimmer of the force field that protected them all from the vacuum of space.

Crimson sighed and pushed his hair out of his eyes. He hated his hair, it was brown, slightly long and in his opinion, very boring. But his father wouldn't let him have the colour changed. He had once come home with a strip of it coloured blue, most parents would have either dyed it back to its natural colour, or cut off the offending lock. Not Erakamus though, he simply gave his son a solid punch to the stomach each morning until the colour faded back to normal.

Crimson smiled at the memory of it, if he had been a little less stubborn he could have just had it dyed back himself, but then his dad would have hit him for wasting the money a second time. Crimson trudged forwards, his backpack weighing heavily on his shoulders. Of course it was heavy, this green canvas sack carried everything that Crimson owned, which mostly consisted of clothes. They were pretty heavy clothes mind you, like most 15 year old boys Crimson was dressed in that peculiar style of standard originality. His trousers were practically all denim and all had metal parts to them. There was another heavy object in the pack, his gun. It wasn't unusual for the citizens of pioneer 2 to be armed, far from it, it was odd for someone to be weaponless, and so nestled amongst his various belongings, Crimson carried a handgun, standard ranger issue.

Crimson sighed as he reached the large blast doors that served as pedestrian access to this new block. It was never his intention to be a ranger, it was never his intention to do anything. All he wanted was to sit at home and mess around with his friends. But that was no life for the son of the heroic ranger Erakamus Pryandomar. Or so his dad decided. So against his will, here Crimson was, reluctantly making his way to his first day at school.

The massive doors opened with a whoosh and a slight release of gas obscured Crimsons vision for a moment and stung his nose. When it had cleared Crimson could see the place where he would be spending the next 4 years of his life. It was vast, small buildings dotted the expansive fields of grass, and in the center sat a ominous looking complex. Crimson stepped over the threshold and immediately felt a new sensation under his feet. He'd never seen grass before, his mother and father would have, they were old enough to have lived on coral before the pioneer project started. But this was his first encounter with the tiny, fragile blades. He could smell it as it was crushed beneath his heavy duty boots, it was an smell, but not unpleasant. It sort of reminded Crimson of the flowers that his mother cared for and cherished at home.

His target was the central complex, so huge was the interior of this building, which could only be called a building because of the immense walls and far overhead ceiling, that it took him a full half an hour to reach it. By this time, the novelty of grass had worn off slightly, and Crimson was presented with a new challenge, where was he supposed to go? The floor was covered in coloured lines, but Crimson had no clue which one to follow, perhaps the instructions he had got in the mail would help. After a brief search he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. It was no help, all the instructions said was that he was arrive at the registration office at 9am. Crimson checked his watch, he had 20 minutes left. He scanned the walls for useful information and found a board that looked likely to be helpful. It had several coloured lines with words next to them.

Green line, Dormitories. Yellow line, Cafeteria. Blue line, Library... Crimson checked the whole list. His heart sank, registration wasn't on it. Why would it be? he reasoned, the registration office would only be used once every year. Then he noticed the notice next to the board. "registration is at the administration office" Quickly referring back to the board Crimson discovered that he was to follow the Black line. Crimson took off at a jog, not wanting to be late. His jog changed into a run after 10 minutes of jogging had not taken him to the end of the black line.

Trust his dad to drop him off on completely the wrong side of this block. It was absolutely typical, Erakamus would have had no problem with a 20 minute run, he'd have liked the exercise. Crimson however was a touch out of shape and his legs were getting very tired from all this running. Luckily he didn't have much further to go. He skidded round the last corner and found himself at the back of a line. Severely out of breath he plopped himself down with his back to a wall. He'd made it, and just on time too. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. That was close, being late on his first day would not have left a very good impression on people.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" A voice bellowed in his ear. Crimson was used to raised voices though and didn't jump at all, he just opened one eye to look at the red faced man looking down on him. His mustache was sort of funny looking.

"I'm taking a rest, after a 20 minute run I'm a little tired, what's it to you?" Crimson replied

"You are not here to take a rest boy" The man hissed "you are here to become a hunter, a MAN, and my grandma has more stamina than you do, I just hope you end up in my class, I'd take great pleasure in throwing you out on your sorry ass." Fantastic, Crimson thought, here for less then 5 minutes and he'd already annoyed a teacher. Oh well, these things will happen.

"Sorry." Crimson stood up and said nothing more. The man hmphed at him and strode off, he looked like he was full of his own importance. Crimson stuck his tongue out at him. He felt a little tug on his tee-shirt.

"Excuse me, is this the line to register?" a small voice asked. Crimson turned to face the speaker, and almost did a double take. It was a girl, a rather cute girl, but she was approximately 4 ft 10", wearing platform boots, a skirt and a very silly looking hat.

"Erm I dunno, I just got here, but I think it is, yeah, there's a line and everything." Crimson was oh so very confident when talking to girls. But in all fairness, he'd only ever met two, one of which happened to be 8 years old, and the other could, and frequently did, beat Crimson in a fight.

"You sure you wanna sign up though?" He asked "This isn't exactly your normal school, I hear it's a bit erm tough.

The girl giggled "Oh I'm sure it's not that bad here, you seem nice." Crimson blushed a deep enough shade of red to match his name.

"Erm uhh, well I, you know... what?" The girl was looking at him inquisitively

"The line's moved"

"Really?" Crimson looked back at where the line had been, it was moving pretty fast "Haha, oops" He hurried to join the end of it.

The sign up process didn't appear to take too long, Crimson was at the front of the line in no time.

"Name?" The secretary asked

"Crimson Pryandomar"

"Ah, Erik's boy, here are your papers and room key, you're in Sergeant Carlsons class, that's your lot over there, the group with the pink haired guy in it."

Crimson thanked her and joined the group who he supposed were his new classmates, He didn't like the sound of "Sergeant Carlson" The guy who'd yelled at him earlier looked an awful lot liked he'd have that sort of name. He breathed a sigh of relief when a smiling woman introduced herself as their instructor.

"Hello, I'm Sergeant Carlson, and I get the distinct priveledge of trying to knock some intelligence into all of you lot. Seems like a shame that I only have 4 years to do it in. Alot of you might be thinking "great, a female instructor, this'll be easy" WRONG! You step out of line and you'll find I can be as hard-assed as the rest of the staff here!" There were a fair number of groans from the people in Crimsons group. Including one from behind him. He looked round and saw that the girl he'd talked to in the line was right behind him.

"Now then, You guys toddle off and find your rooms. Don't get too comfortable though, half of you wimps are more than likely to quit in the first few months. Bye bye, see you all in the afternoon.

Crimson found his room easily enough, once you followed the green line far enough, you got to the dorm building, and from there it was all alphabetically arranged. He was in block G , room H8, which he found slightly amusing. It seemed like room keys were given out in order of arrival, as the girl from the line was in H9 right next to him.

Once inside his room Crimson wasted no time in unpacked his bag. Literally, he wasted no time unpacking his bag, he didn't do it. He dropped his bag into the closet and crashed onto the bed. 9:20am, what the hell kinda time was that? Back home he would never be awake before 11, and probably not out of bed before midday. He was going to take a nap.

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Right, don't know how good this is, lol I just felt like doing a "school-fic" type thing, seemed like a good idea, and yes this is the same Crimson. I thought it would be interesting to do a fic about his background, many other characters from my standard fic will be appearing as well, but obviously some others won't (No Magus, Chimpus or Alice, those are for certain)


	2. Fitness test

I would like to bring it to people's attention that I am being forced to use WordPad to write this story, because some fool has lost my disc with Microsoft office on it. This means that all spelling, grammar and punctuation is done by me, not a fantastic little spell checking program. Ah well

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"WOULD ALL NEW STUDENTS PLEASE REPORT TO THE CAFETERIA IMMEDIATELY, REPEAT, ALL STUDENTS TO THE CAFETERIA" The intercom crackled. Crimson threw his pillow at the small grey box, and missed.

"Sonuva bitch piece of crap intercom, why's it have to go off just when I get comfortable." He muttered as he crossed the room to retrieve the pillow. Crimson was not exactly in the best of moods when he'd been forced out of bed, he'd much rather be allowed to sleep all day, instead of the paltry 4 hours of rest he'd managed to gain since his arrival. Suddenly the door exploded inwards and the short girl from next door burst into the room.

"Heya sleepy head, I came in to talk to you earlier, but you wouldn't wake up, but now you have to, sooooo I thought you could have the honour of escorting me to the cafeteria. The girl was offensively hyperactive, considering Crimsons somewhat lethargic condition.

"You came in earlier? Did you even knock that time, or do you just not bother? Ever heard of privacy? I could have been naked or something."

"Well that would have been very embarrassing... for you" The girl giggled "we need to get going now though, the announcement did say immediately."

Crimson relented and walked down the yellow line with the girl. He had to stop thinking of her as "the girl" it was obvious they would be spending a fair amount of time together, and despite her irritating cheeriness and terrible fashion sense, he quite liked her.

"So?" he asked "What's your name anyway?"

The girl stopped and straightened her skirt "My name is Aurora Tasai-Quin Rylath Dorphin Tals Sytheria, 12 of 59" She smiled at Crimson "But you can call me Aurora. What's yours?"

Whoa, Crimson thought, long name, and the numbers at the end were odd, he wondered what they meant. Had she been older it could have just been that she had been married a lot, but the 12 of 59 sounded like a production number. Then he realised, short, energetic, no fashion sense. She must be a Newman. He'd heard of Newmans, and even seen one once before, his dads friend Elisel, but he'd never been this close to one.

"Hello? I know I'm stunning, but you can stop staring now."

"Oh, sorry." Crimson apologised "I'm Crimson Pryandomar" He waited for her reaction.

"Really? Wow." Aurora said. Well, this was it, the unending questions about his dad, endless repetitions of the absurd legends surrounding his father's combat prowess. "That's a really funny name." Aurora finished.

"What?" Crimson was honestly surprised "You don't recognise it at all? Doesn't ring any bells?"

"Nope" Aurora started skipping forwards again towards the cafeteria "Must be odd though, having a colour instead of a first name."

"Hey!" Crimson blushed, walking at a fast pace to keep up with Aurora as she bounced along the corridor "At least it's better than Aurora Tasai-Quin Rylaaahh whatever."

Aurora started skipping backwards "Those are my parents' names thank you very much, and they are a lot better being called a colour."

Crimson sighed "You're very childish, you know that, right? And by the way, post."

"Yeah, I'm childish, and post?" Aurora continued to skip backwards until she clanged into the yellow support post that Crimson had mentioned. She got up, rubbing the back of her head "Oww, meany! You could have told me!"

"Sorry" Crimson was trying not to laugh, which became much easier when he noticed the scowl on Auroras face "You're not hurt or anything are you?" He asked.

"Well my heads okay, but I think my ass is broken."

"Huh? What?"

"It's cracked in two!" Aurora laughed

Crimson shook his head "So childish"

The rest of the trip to the cafeteria took them only a few more minutes, Crimson was quite surprised at how well he was doing at not making a fool out of himself like he did with most girls. But then Aurora seemed to be doing most of the foolery.

When they arrived at the cafeteria they easily found their class, simply because of the person in it with pink hair. It was more effective than a tour guides umbrella. There was some casual chatter for a few minutes until their instructors arrived. Sergeant Carlson seemed to be in her "nice" disguise for now. Crimson had decided the moment he met her that she was mental.

"Ah my lovely students." She clapped her hands together "This afternoon is going to be a wonderful experience for all of you, because today, we are going to assess your fitness levels, anyone who fails and doesn't improve in a months time, gets sent right back home to mommy and daddy, or as the case may be" she looked directly at Aurora "Their mommy and 5 daddies."

That was a cheap shot by anyone's standards, and Aurora was looking increasingly uncomfortable under everyone's stares. Fortunately their attention was soon distracted by a late comer. The cafeteria doors boomed open and a short white haired male made his belated and very much noticed entrance.

"Sorry... I'm late" He huffed, very definitely out of breath. "I, had to, run from the, next block, over." He gulped in some air. "I only just finished registering." he explained.

"Ah Tatsu Littlewing, I did notice your absence this morning, it would be hard not to see you even in a large crowd. Get over here, you're in my class." Carlson beckoned him over and Tatsu complied. She dealt him a backhand blow across his face causing blood to trickle from his nose. "Now don't you say that hurt, because I know your dear auntie gives you worse, but let it be a gentle reminder, NEVER be late."

Tatsu slunk to the back of the group, standing next to Crimson and Aurora. He was only a little taller than Aurora

"Does that hurt? Aurora whispered to Tatsu, pointing at his bloody nose.

"No" Tatsu whispered back

"You're a bad liar" Aurora raised her hand and small green sparks arced from her fingertips to Tatsu's face, his nose stopped bleeding.

"Thanks" Tatsu mumbled.

Crimson blinked, magic, at the simple wave of a hand, his dad would always laugh about it, declaring that no true hunter should fight by borrowing a power they don't understand, Trust in guns and swords, not magic words and flashy lights, that's what he'd always said. He then became aware of Carlson speaking.

"... groups, we'll be the first, so you can all trail along behind me while we go and look for the athletics track, now won't that be fun?"

The whole group trudged off after their instructor. Crimson had already decided that he didn't like her, he despised being condescended, his father was not exactly kind and caring, but he had always treated Crimson like an equal, in fact that was where most of the abuse had come from, times when Crimson was not acting like the man his father expected him to be. That he could understand, but this instructor... she was horrible for no good reason at all. Tatsu's voice broke him out of his silent thoughts

"I know you, don't I?"

"How would I know what you know?" Crimson replied "I don't recognise you though"

"Well erm, you never saw me exactly, I just went past your house once."

"Really? Why?" Crimson was perplexed

"My aunt was visiting, you might recognise her name." Tatsu dropped his voice to a whisper "Elisel"

"Who's..." Aurora began before Tatsu clamped a hand over her mouth.

"Please? I don't want anyone else to know." He begged "I hate being related to a celebrity"

Crimson chuckled slightly "I feel your pain, and I think I do remember you, weren't you that kid that dad had to stop Karli from killing?"

Tatsu groaned at the memory "Your demon cousin, I could hardly help that her feet were too big to avoid stepping on."

"Yes yes, big feet to step on, but I bet they felt even bigger when she was using them to kick your ass." Both Crimson and Tatsu started laughing, but soon stopped, they didn't know Sergeant Carlson very well, but she didn't seem to be the sort who would approve of laughter.

It took less time than Crimson had anticipated to reach the athletics track. It seemed to be a state of the art affair, judging by the equipment that was dotted about the place. But of course there is very little that technology can do to improve something as simple as a running track. Red metal, rough texture, standard stuff really.

"Ah, we appear to have arrived" Carlson declared. "Now here's the fun part, all of you are going to go for a little run around this track. I think maybe 5 laps should do it, don't you? Well let's do the maths; if the track is 1000 metres around, you're doing 5 laps, how far is that?" She looked around expectantly "Anyone?"

The girl with the pink hair raised her hand timidly "5000 metres miss"

"Ah, I can't hear people unless they use my name"

"5000 metres Sergeant Carlson"

"Very good" the sergeant beamed "As a reward, Miss Farzad here will only be doing 4 laps, oh and Littlewing? 7 laps for you, you were late. Anybody who fails to complete their laps will have 1 month to improve, otherwise they're going home." She smiled viciously at a few people "Get going then"

Each member of the class took off at a jog, some faster than others. Aurora entertained herself at the start of the run by consistently keeping about 10 metres in front of Crimson but after the first 2 laps she was too busy just trying to keep going.

Crimson was faring slightly better, since he lived in the middle of nowhere he was used to running a couple of miles to the shops when it was needed. Tatsu was obviously made of stronger stuff than his height and build would suggest, as he was out in front by an easy half a lap and showing no signs of tiring.

Crimson looked back over his shoulder and noticed that Aurora was almost out on her feet. To be fair several people had already quit, there was only a little way to go, and by most peoples standards 5 kilometres was near impossible. He slowed his pace and allowed her to catch up.

"Are you, okay?" He asked concernedly "You look, like you're, about to die."

"Feel like it" Aurora mumbled back.

Crimson put a reassuring hand on her shoulder "Come on, not far to go, you can do it, I know you can."

"Can't. Tired."

Crimson flicked his eyes forwards for a brief moment; the end was within sight, and within reach.

"Tatsu, he's over a, lap ahead, you going to, lose to him?" Crimson kept his hand on Auroras shoulder, not applying any pressure, just keeping her moving.

"Doesn't matter. I can't. Do this."

"You don't, think so?" Crimson grinned "Then I need, to tell you something."

"What?"

"The line's about, 10 metres, behind us now."

Aurora took a moment to process this information, she then blinked twice, stopped running, looked at Crimson, and passed out.

Crimson caught her before she hit the floor and carried her to the grass by the track side where he unceremoniously dumped her on the ground. He dropped down next to her, breathing heavily, he couldn't remember his chest ever hurting so much, it felt like something was trying to explode inside him.

A shadow passed over him and he looked up to see Sergeant Carlson grinning down at him

"Well done, there was me thinking you'd be gone before the month is out, ah well, there's still time for that eh? How about you wake your friend up? We're not done with your little physical exam just yet." Carlson straightened up and addressed the entire class "Five minutes break, and then you're going to be introduced to our lovely gym."

This was greeted by a large number of groans, including one from Aurora who, with some nudging from Crimson, was starting to wake up again.

He'd only just got her fully awake when Tatsu jogged over to them. His Pure white hair was plastered to his skull, and sweat was running down the side of his face, he looked exhausted.

"Hey guys, you ever get the idea that our class is being lead by a total sadist."

Crimson grinned in response "That reminds me of a funny joke, a sadist and a masochist are sitting in a bar."

He got up and moved before he got to finish telling the joke, partly to be at the back of the group when they headed to the gym, but mostly because Aurora had just thrown up in the spot they used to be sitting in. Today looked like it was going to be absolutely delightful.


	3. Pizza

These massive gaps in updates seem to becoming rather common, but really it's not my fault it just sorta happens. I'm trying to make more time for my hobbies but it's a little tricky, I'm doing this instead of sleeping tonight.

Crimson was right, the rest of the day was about as fun as the 5 kilometer run. It had consisted of weightlifting, jump rope, swimming and finally an obstacle course that combined the previous 4 excercises. If Crimson had know this was going to happen he would've had breakfast that morning. But that didn't matter now, as he was now in the cafeteria again, picking out food for dinner.

"No, no, what the hell is that? no... Is there nothing to eat here?" He complained

"These things are good." Aurora pointed out some fried triangle shaped things "and those too, but only if you have ketchup too." She pointed to something that was also fried, but of no distinct shape.

"You don't want those." Tatsu advised "I suggest the various types of pizza." Tatsu held up his plate to indicate that the pizza did in fact exist.

"Hey! where'd you get that from?" Crimson asked

"Just over there, next to the potato things" Tatsu turned and pointed.

"Yoink, too slow!" Crimson grabbed Tatsu's plate and ran off.

"I had to pay for that you know." Tatsu complained. They were now sitting round a table with their different dinners. The pizza had ran out by the time Tatsu had got back round the queue, he was now morosely prodding at some of the fried stuff that Aurora seemed to like.

"Ah well, it's your fault for not keeping your eyes on the prize, gotta be sharper than that if you want to be a hunter." Crimson leaned back in his chair

"And just who said I wanted to be a hunter?" Tatsu snapped

"Maaan someone forgot to take their nap today, lighten up. I'm only messing with ya, I'll pay you back for the pizza."

"Heh, thanks, didn't mean to yell at you, it's been a tough day."

"I know what you mean, but that doesn't mean you should drop your guard against my awesome ninja skills." Crimson held up a slice of pizza and struck a ninja-esque pose. The slice of pizza was quickly stolen by Aurora, who stuck her tongue out at him.

"Nyah, my kung-fu is stronger." She handed the pizza back to Tatsu, who accepted it gratefully, then ate it as fast as possible.

Crimson retaliated with an attempted theft of a fried thing from Aurora's plate, all he got for his efforts was a rap across the knuckles with a fork. They all laughed like idiots, attracting odd looks from other people at the table.

Once everyone, excepting a few slow eaters, had finished with their meals, Sergeant Carlson stepped forwards to address them.

"I do hope you all enjoyed your meals kiddies, because once the money in your pockets runs out, that's it, you live on the academies generous allowance, I'd suggest you learn to cook. But that's not important right now, what is important is that a few of you pudgy little people failed to meet fitness requirements. You all know who you are, and I won't embarrass you by naming names. Except you, Ashton Farzad, your sister is a better hunter than you, you should be ashamed."

Judging by the colour of the boys face Ashton was feeling very much ashamed, it seemed like he was attempting to master invisibility by sheer force of will.

"Remember" Carlson continued "One month to improve, or you go home. But now it's time for beddy byes, no sharing of rooms, the health and safety regulations forbid it. But I don't care what you do, so 6 people to a room if you feel like it, just don't set fire to anything."

Crimson pushed his chair back, stood up and stretched "No dessert? What a rip-off."

The group filed out of the cafeteria, one of the other groups was waiting outside, obviously mealtimes were taken in turns according to group. One dark looking youth was staring daggers at Crimson for no apparent reason. Their eyes locked for a brief moment, and then the boy turned away and went into the cafeteria.

"That was an unfriendly looking bunch huh?" Aurora commented

"Yeah, looks like all the moody assholes were thrown into one group" Crimson replied. Tatsu kicked him in the ankle "What the hell was that for?"

"You should watch your language when in the presence of ladies" Tatsu told him tartly.

"There aren't any ladies around here, just Aurora. OWW!" Crimson received a kick from Aurora too "You guys are mean, stop picking on me."

Aurora grinned at him "Oh I'm sure you could use your awesome ninja skills to stop us if you wanted to."

"Nah" Crimson dismissed the idea with a wave of his hand "Wouldn't wanna hurt you, would I?"

"Oh?" Aurora smiled at him archly, then without warning, grabbed Crimsons ankle, yanked it so he hit the floor front first and twisted savagely "Wouldn't want to hurt me huh?"

Crimson pressed up with just his arms and handsprung back up so he was standing with one foot on Aurora's chest. "Yup, thats exactly what I said." He pressed down lightly on Aurora's ribcage and then helped her to her feet.

"You okay?" he backed up a step, Aurora was looking mad at him. He backed up further when he saw her shoulder muscles tense. "Umm, sorry?" He didn't make the 3rd step before Aurora growled at him and tackled him to the floor.

"TICKLE ATTACK!"

"Ah, no! haha, I'm sorry! hahaha I'm sorry!"

Tatsu shook his head "Well my rooms not far from here, I think I'll leave you two lovebirds to play" With that, he jogged off

Aurora immediately got off of Crimson. She stood up and smoothed her clothes down. "I hope you learned your lesson mister, and don't go getting any funny ideas, that was strictly a punishment, got it?"

Crimson pretended to look chastised "Yes mistress."

"Hey! don't call me mistress, we're just friends."

"Of course mistress"

"Gah, you're intolerable, you know that?"

"Well I do try." Crimson smiled "Oh yeah, by the way, guess what?"

"What?"

Crimson reached out with one finger and prodded Aurora's nose "Poke!" He ran away laughing.

"Hey, get back here! Don't think your mistress won't punish you for that!" Aurora took off in hot pursuit.

The chase ended in Crimsons room. Crimson laying flat out on the bed, and Aurora on the floor, since Crimson was big enough to take up the entire bed there was very little choice

"Hey Crimson?" Aurora asked suddenly

"Yeah?"

"Don't you think it's weird how we're friends so fast?"

Crimson thought about it for a moment "Not really, I've always thought that the best friendships were the ones where you're friends right away, not ones you have to work at."

"So you believe in love at first sight as well, right?"

"I.. umm... well..." Crimson struggled to find words to fit the situation

"Hahaha, you're so funny, you know that? You're cute when you're innocent."

"hey... don't make fun of me."

"I'm sorry" Aurora's apology seemed sincere, but then she was back to her usual self "It's so easy to do though."

"Whatever, I'm going to sleep now, I get cranky if I don't sleep for about half the day, see you tomorrow." Crimson rolled over and pulled the blanket on top of himself. Aurora settled down at the end of the bed.

"Night Crimson"

"What do you think you're doing?" Crimson was more bemused than annoyed "You've got your own room, and bed, sleep there."

"Promise you won't laugh at this?"

"Won't laugh at what?"

"I'm scared of the dark, and I've always had a brother or sister to share a room with."

"Aww, thats so cute" Crimson laughed "You can sleep here, but I'd best not wake up tied to the bed or anything."

"Don't worry, I haven't unpacked the chains and handcuffs yet." Crimson couldn't see Aurora because of the dark, but he was fairly sure she was smiling evilly.

There was no further conversation for the rest of the night. Despite Aurora's claim that she was scared of the dark, she fell asleep fairly quickly. Crimson however had to finish thinking before his brain would let him switch off.

Was Aurora really joking earlier? She was far more playful with him than she was with Tatsu, but then Tatsu was a little more introverted, and if Aurora had let him give an answer, what would he say? Love at first sight seemed like a silly idea, you can't love a stranger. But it seemed so natural to joke and play around with Aurora. There was just something about her that brought his inner child to the surface.

Crimson smiled in the dark, whatever it was between the two of them, he was thankful for it. By meeting somebody who was so childish, he had been given an opportunity to have at least some part of the childhood that his father had managed to deny him.


	4. Rules and Rivals

From this point on I am going to be in need of a fair number of characters, a couple of them major, reason being, there are 4 classes full of hunters, now if I create each and every character myself, then a few will end up a bit bland, so lets keep things interesting with a few suggestions

"waaaake uuuuuup laaaazy!" An offensively happy voice trilled in Crimsons ear. He opened one eye and glanced at the clock next to his bed.

"Aurora..." he muttered "One, it is 7:21 am, which is a stupid time to be awake, and two... go away."

"huh? I was going to buy you breakfast you know, but if you're going to be like that, none for you." Aurora blew a loud raspberry.

Crimson threw back the covers and jumped out of bed. "Sorry! Please accept my most humble apologies, don't make me grovel!"

Aurora raised an eyebrow at him "You didn't bring any meseta did you?" Crimson shook his head "And the academy won't give us our allowance until Friday, which is three days away" Crimson nodded "So you can't buy yourself any food at all for the next three days." Aurora smiled evilly.

"C'mon, please!" Crimson actually was groveling now, on his knees, hands clasped together "I'm a growing boy, I gotta eat or I'll waste away."

"hmm... hmmm... what's in it for me?"

"Crap... you know I have nothing." This was true, Crimsons back pack had been prepared for him, he had no clue that he was going to be stuck in the hunters academy

"Really? aww, blackmail isn't any fun if I can't get anything out of it." Aurora pouted "Fine, I'll pay for your food until Friday, BUT you're on ramen for every meal, I'm not made of meseta you know."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! I won't forget this." Crimson wrapped Aurora in a bear hug. Joke's on her, he thought, I love ramen.

Just then there was a polite knock at the door, three light raps. Without thought Aurora went over and opened it, it was Tatsu. Who was rather surprised to see Aurora open Crimson's door.

He blinked twice in rapid succession "So you guys umm spent the night together?" He blushed red and turned away. Turning away was a bad idea, as it left him open to Aurora smacking him across the back of the head.

"If you'll think with your BRAIN for a moment, me and Crimson are still wearing the same clothes as yesterday, and I only just met him! You saying I'm some sort of whore!"

"No! I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything like that. STOP HITTING ME!"

Aurora stopped raining blows down on Tatsu's back, but only because Crimson had picked her up and she was now flailing about in mid-air.

"Thanks" Tatsu mumbled "Anyway, I was just knocking to say that there's only a few minutes before breakfast starts, since you're the only two I know, I figured we could sit together."

Crimson deposited Aurora on Tatsu's side of the door. "Yeah, sure, just give me a moment to get changed and I'll see you in the cafeteria.

Sadly, there was to be no breakfast for them this morning, as Sgt. Carlson had a surprise in store for them.

"Now then kiddies, I don't know if anyone has told you the rules of this lovely place yet, but it is my delightful duty to fill you in on them. But I don't like to repeat myself, so you had all better listen very very carefully hadn't you?" There were nods and general murmurs of agreement.

"Rule one." Carlson beamed at them all "The word of an instructor is law, you don't like it? Too bad, you'd have to complain to one of the principals, and they really aren't likely to take your side." She let this information sink in for a while.

"Rule two, my personal favorite" Carlson smiled her best non-friendly smile "Any dispute between students may be settled with a duel. Disputes include, insults real or imagined, possession of an object, allocation of chores and anything else you lovely people can possibly think of arguing about."

"Crap, that's going to get insane." Crimson whispered to Tatsu, who nodded his agreement.

"The third and final rule is, it's not illegal if nobody finds out about it. Do what you like, but be prepared to face the consequences if you're caught. punishments are SEVERE."

"What you going to do? Give us detention?" Snickered an unsavory looking blonde guy near the back of the room."

"Actually I was thinking more along the lines of stringing you up by your ankles, keeping you there for a day or two and then whipping you until you beg forgiveness."

"You can't be serious!" The blonde was looking very pale all of a sudden.

"Ah, rule number one, the word of an instructor is law. They mean that literally of course, this academy operates outside of police jurisdiction. You can't hide behind niceties such as legal, civil or even human rights while you're here."

"You're a psycho bitch! you know that?" The blonde yelled.

Carlson produced a handgun from its holster around her waist and fired a shot that only just breezed past the students left cheek. The student sat down, stunned. "A few people have told me that, yes. But unfortunately for you, I run your life for now, get used to it." She then smiled brightly. "Oh yes, before I forget, in the spirit of competition, you've all been assigned rivals."

The pink haired Erisa timidly raised a hand "Excuse me Sgt. Carlson, ma'am, but what does that mean exactly?"

"Ah Erisa dear, so nice of you to ask, and so very politely too. Well, what it means is, for each of you there is another student in the academy, one who is roughly your equal. But here is the thing, only one of you may pass. If your rival passes, it doesn't matter how well you do, you fail."

There were numerous mutterings about this latest revelation, few of them approving.

Sgt Carlson cleared her throat "You'll find some papers on the table near the door, find the one with your name on it, that is your rivals profile."

There was a great deal of unorganised milling around as everyone attempted to get their paper at the same time. But eventually it was all sorted out and everyone knew who their rivals were.

Crimson flipped the front page over, the next page was a brief document with details on his rival, there was a photo attached. It was the same dark looking youth that Crimson had encountered the other day. It was sort of creepy to see that flat, unfriendly stare gazing at him unblinkingly. But then Crimson had always been a bit creeped out by photos. He quickly scanned the information on the page.

The guys name was Itami Rudhira, he was 16 years old, had black hair and even blacker eyes. Crimson took another look at the photo, there was definitely something chilling about Itami's eyes.

The next page was more detailed, much to Crimsons surprise, it included a criminal record, a brief personality profile, and some other personal information which Crimson thought really shouldn't be shared, Crimson figured he didn't need to know it anyway. Further thinking was stopped when Aurora bumped into his side.

"Hey Aurora, who you got as a rival?" He asked casually, resting his arm on Aurora's head.

"Violet Persimmon, and it looks like she's a total cow. Look" Aurora held out her data sheet for Crimson's inspection.

"Well yes, she does look like a bulldog chewing broken glass, and whats this? A history of violent crime? Looks like you hit the jackpot with the rival draws huh?"

"Uh huh, and she's 190lbs, I weigh nothing compared to her, how am I supposed to be better than her when it comes to fighting?"

"Be quick, be smart, don't let her sit on you" Crimson joked.

"QUIET!" Sgt Carlsons voice cut through the classes conversations "Right, now I have your attention, you're to report to room 12 in teaching block A, it's near the athletics track, run along now."

The class made an unorganised push for the door. Crimson, having learned better, hung back with Aurora and Tatsu and waited for the rush to subside. When they passed through the doors they heard the sounds of an argument.

The blonde haired kid from before had Erisa pinned against the wall, she seemed to be in some amount of distress.

"So? Your teachers little pet huh?" The blonde kid yelled "Think you're better than everyone else just because that bitch doesn't hate you like she does me? That it?"

Erisa shrank back against the wall "No, that's not it at all, my parents always taught me to be polite, and Sergeant Carlson isn't so bad if you don't cause trouble."

"If I don't cause trouble? You saying I'm a trouble maker? I don't have to take this crap from you, you snobby little whore!"

"I'm sorry" Erisa sank to the floor

"Apologise to my fist bitch." The blonde guy pulled his fist back to strike Erisa as she cowered against the wall. But he met a strong resistance when he tried to move it forwards. He turned round to see Tatsu calmly holding his wrist.

"I think you should say sorry to this young lady." Tatsu said calmly "I also think that you need to be a little more tolerant of your classmates, you're going to be stuck with them for a long time."

"Who the hell are you to tell me what to do? Huh? Since when do I take orders from an albino freak?!?" The kid swung his other fist, which Tatsu easily caught with his free hand. Tatsu then began applying pressure until the kid was forced to his knees, bringing him down to Tatsu's chest height.

"Apologise to this girl, or I will force the apology from you."

The blonde student tried to struggle against Tatsu's grip, but found that he couldn't. He looked up and stared directly into Tatsu's eyes. Red eyes, blood red eyes that met his blue ones without flinching. Tatsu wasn't afraid of him, not in the slightest.

"I'm sorry! There I said it, now let me go you bastard!"

Tatsu released his grip on the youth, who jumped to his feet and slashed at Tatsu with a knife that had been concealed in his boot. Tatsu dodged the slash with a slight movement of his head. The blonde haired student sprinted away. turning back to yell.

"Don't think I'll forget about this Tatsu! I'm John Kayden, remember that name!"

Tatsu shook his head "What kind of name for a hunter is john?" He extended a hand towards Erisa "Are you okay Erisa?"

Erisa took his hand and allowed him to pull her to her feet. "I'm fine thank you." She said quietly, despite the fact that tears were still trickling down her cheeks and she was trembling slightly.

"Never been in a fight before?" Tatsu asked in a tone that held so much of kindness that there was no hint of mockery.

Erisa shook her head "Mom always taught me that if I try hard enough, there's no need to fight."

Tatsu smiled at her "If that were true, the world would be a much nicer place to live in."

"I think it is true." Erisa replied "and I want everyone else to believe it too. Umm where did your two friends go?"

Tatsu looked around, Crimson and Aurora were nowhere in sight. Then he looked down and noticed he was yet to let go of Erisa's hand. He immediately flushed red and let go. "They umm must have erm, gone one without me. We're supposed to be going to class remember."

"Oh! I completely forgot." The look on Erisa's face was one of shock, she really had forgotten about the class they were supposed to be attending. She took off down the corridor at a run "Bye mr, thank you very much for helping me."

"I'm Tatsu, Tatsu Littlewing" Tatsu called after her, before realising that he too had better hurry if he didn't want to be disciplined for being late.

Short chapter again, but it's either short chapters or longer waits for updates (which take ages anyway) I'm sure my fans (all 2 of them) will understand


	5. Lessons

Alright, I've finally found my motivation, go me. And not just some rubbish little "I'll do it this time" motivation, I mean a reason to finish this whole story. I won't say what it is, because the universe would take it away. (It doesn't like it when I'm happy)

* * *

Tatsu and Erisa arrived at the classroom at about the same time, because Tatsu just ran faster. But it turned out that their rush was completely pointless. The teacher wasn't there yet. Tatsu quickly joined the back of the group, standing next to Crimson.

"So? how'd it go with Erisa?" Crimson asked with a wink.

"What do you mean how'd it go? I helped her out, we came to class."

"You idiot" Crimson smacked Tatsu over the head "If you're going to play knight in shining armour, you should always get a kiss out of it at least."

"What about saving somebody just for the sake of being nice?" Tatsu rubbed the back of his head.

"Well I suppose, but not if they're good looking like Erisa is."

Tatsu shot a look at Erisa from across the room, she appeared to be talking to her brother Ashton, but she looked his way and smiled at him shyly. Tatsu quickly looked away.

"Well maybe she is, but you shouldn't expect rewards for stuff like that, what if that guy had really hurt her, and none of us had done anything just because there was nothing in it for us and it wasn't our business?"

"I'm just saying you should have at least tried."

Tatsu shook his head "You're hopeless."

A few more minutes passed, and still no sign of a teacher. People were starting to get impatient.

"Dammit, where is that lazy asshole we're supposed call a teacher?" John, obviously.

"No need to shout." a voice replied "I'm right here." Everyone turned to look towards the door, eager to see what kind of person this teacher was. There was no-one there.

"I said I'm right here, not right there." The same voice, but a little bit sarcastic.

Everyone turned back to see a man in the middle of the room, He had most definitely not been there before. Crimson looked the man over with a critical eye. The guy was oriental in appearance, dressed just a little too warmly for the rooms temperature, normal kind of clothes, except for a heavy looking jacket. No weapons that Crimson could see, but from the guys entrance, Crimson had a good guess at what he would be teaching them.

"Nice entrance." Crimson commented "Though you could stand to make a little less noise when you land."

The teacher just laughed "All good tricks have to be practiced you know, nobody knows everything from the beginning. But anyway, onto more serious matters, I am Komichi Akeboshi, and I'm going to teach you all how to not shoot yourself in the foot."

"Does every teacher in this place have to be so condescending? We're not kids you know, we've held weapons before." complained one of the students.

Komichi walked over to the student and placed one hand on their head "I'm sowwie." he said in the type of tone one would usually reserve for speaking to an infant "I didn't wealise you were awl big boys and girls."

The student flushed red "Don't act like we're kids!" He yelled and swung a punch at Komichi's head.

In a movement faster than could be followed, Komichi moved out of the way, grabbed the students wrist, ducked behind them and twisted their arm right the way up their back.

"I have to assume that you know nothing, so I don't miss teaching you anything you'll need to know to avoid getting killed, so until you prove to me that you're not just whining little brats, I'm going to treat you like one, and throwing little tantrums is not going to make me see you as a responsible adult, got it?" He gave the students wrist a final twist and then let them go.

The student rubbed their wrist and muttered "Dammit, he's quick."

"Of course I'm quick" Komichi replied "A big part of being a ranger is not being seen and not getting hit, leave taking hits to those big hulking hunters." he laughed again, choosing to ignore the death glares of any hunters in the room.

Crimson had already formed his opinion of this particular teacher, he was strong, most likely one of the best rangers around, but he was also an idiot. Crimson liked him, who wanted to be taught by some serious old man?

Seemingly from nowhere Komichi produced a handgun, he spun it on the index finger of his left hand, flipped it up into the air and caught it with his right. He then handed it to the nearest student.

"Since all of you will be using at least a handgun every now any then, today is going to be spent introducing you to them." Komichi smiled at everyone as if he was giving them a wonderful gift. He then gave handguns to each student.

Crimson hefted his in his right hand, spun it experimentally and fired once into the far wall.

Komichi raised an eyebrow "Crimson isn't it? If you're going to use that gun as a toy, I'll have to take it away from you." There was some sniggering about Crimsons apparent mis-fire.

"Actually I was just getting to know the guns owner." Crimson replied in a tone as cheerful as Komichi's own. "They're left handed, unlike me. They know the proper way to hold a gun, so they have some experience, but still aim with two hands. They're a bit clumsy and don't take much care of their weapons either. It's a novices gun."

Komichi raised both eyebrows this time "And you know this how?"

"Wear on the grip, and some but less on the barrel, couple of scuff marks where it's been dropped, and the noise it makes when fired tells me that some of the photon conductors are wearing a little thin." Crimson smiled.

"I see" Komichi looked at Crimson seriously. "Everyone take seats, sit where you like, I'll move you later if I need to."

Tatsu, Crimson and Aurora all sat near each other, of course. With Crimson near a window, He'd always thought that day-dreaming in class just wasn't the same if you weren't staring off out a window.

John Kayden sat away in a corner, the only person who wanted to sit near him was the student who had swung at Komichi earlier. Erisa and Ashton sat together, Erisa picked a seat two rows back and one to the left from Tatsu.

"Now then, you'll need to know what the insides of a handgun looks like, so just give me a minute or so to draw a diagram." Komichi said from the front of the class. "Forgive me, but the principals say you have to know the theory before I let you do practical"

As soon as his back was turned quiet chatter ensued.

"Crimson?" Aurora asked "How can you tell all that about someone just by holding their gun?"

Crimson shrugged in response "You can do it with anything, anytime a person comes into contact with something, they leave an impression on it. Something like weapons is easy, people come into contact with them everyday, and its always the same person too. My mom can do it with clothes, jewelry, toys, anything at all."

"Wow, that's really cool." Aurora said "and actually a little bit creepy, you're not allowed to look at my stuff anymore."

"I think it was just stupid showing off." Tatsu said "Honestly, that was just a load of rubbish to make you look smart and so you could fire a gun."

"Oh yeah, Mr "don't worry miss! I'll save you from this hoodlum" gets to tell me that I'm the one showing off."

"She was in serious trouble! I just didn't want that guy to hurt her."

"So her being more than a little attractive had nothing to do with it?"

"Of course not!" Tatsu said just a little too loudly "I didn't even notice how she looked until you started talking about it, if you think she's that pretty, you save her next time." Tatsu felt an odd prickling sensation on the back of his head, he turned in his chair to see Ashton staring daggers at him. He gave a quick glare back and turned to face the front again.

Komichi had finished his cross-section drawing of a handgun. It look very little like what each student had in their hands.

"Ah, now I realise that my drawing may be a little off, but handguns are pretty simple weapons. You see first, you have the powercell, you don't need to know how they work, just that they have alot of energy. When you press the trigger the powercell is squeezed, which causes it to..."

Release energy down the conductive wires, to the power conversion crystals blah blah blah thought Crimson. He knew all this, he'd known it since he was able to talk. He stared off out the window, it wasn't as good because in the distance he could see the wall of the massive block they were enclosed in. It was so much better when there was actually a horizon to look at. Even though that was only caused by the epic lengths of corridors on Pioneer.

Crimsons thoughts turned to his classmates. To be honest he didn't even know most of their names. He knew John Kayden, he'd heard him shout his name as he ran away from Tatsu. Kayden seemed like a complete moron and Crimson could see himself fighting him on several future occasions. There was Tatsu himself, who seemed alright, but was a bit too stiff and serious from Crimsons liking, ah well he would soon have that changed. He should maybe ease up about the whole Erisa thing. Crimson knew he had a habit of taking jokes a bit too far sometimes.

Erisa Farzad, Crimson had to admit he did find her quite attractive, even though he'd never talked to her, she was pretty and well spoken. She seemed a bit too dependent on her brother though. Crimson couldn't really see the importance of a family bond like that, since he was an only child.

There was also Aurora, Crimson had been trying not to think about her too much, because it gave him headaches. She was a strange person, loud, childish and a bit of an airhead. Still there was something about her that was overwhelmingly likable. It felt like he'd know her forever, maybe they'd known each other in a past life and he just didn't remember it? But then, was there such thing as a past life?

Crimson was stopped from pondering this when he noticed that the room had gone quiet and everyone was looking at him, including Komichi.

"Huh?" he asked, as usual eloquent even in the face of ignorance.

"I was saying, since you seem to know so much about handguns, you wouldn't mind telling us how the photon energy conversion process in them can be made more efficient." Komichi said patiently.

"Ah, well electrical energy is converted into photonic energy by passing it through a crystal that is enriched with, umm some metal or other, I forget what, So the process can be made more efficient by having a greater power flow from the energy cell, or by having a greater concentration of that special metal in the crystal."

"Good" Said Komichi "The metal doesn't actually have a name, since nobody can agree on who discovered it, we just call it photonic metal. Now anybody, what are the drawbacks to these methods of power increase?"

Erisa raised her hand and was given a nod from Komichi "Umm if you uhh, increase the power flow, then umm, the wiring burns out faster?" She finished her sentence and hid behind her folded arms hoping people wouldn't notice how red her cheeks had gone.

"Exactly right" Komichi gave her a thumbs up and a smile "And of course, purer crystals are just more expensive. Now what else can increase the performance of a photon weapon?"

The lecture had got boring again, and so Crimson stopped paying attention, well, he kept one ear open for any questions directed at him. But for the most part he just went back to thinking about other people in the class.

It didn't seem like anyone was paying a huge amount of attention, except for Ashton, who seemed to be writing down every word that the teacher said, hardly anyone else had even thought to bring writing implements with them. Most knew that there was no such thing as coursework in this academy, and Crimson just didn't consider it.

The rest of the lecture passed with the same sort of tedious questions and explanations, tedious from Crimsons point of view anyway. Ashton seemed to be fascinated by everything, when they left the classroom Ashton was carrying at least 6 sides of A4 paper that he'd taken notes on. Crimson never saw the point in paper, everything could be stored on computer so much easier.

Komichi's instructions had been to go to a classroom that was down the hall, to the right, and 4th door on the left. He apparently didn't know the door number. They all gathered outside what they thought was the right room. Someone pushed the door open and apparently saw someone inside, because everyone began filing in.

They all took seats, similar in arrangement to the last room they were in. The teacher at the front of the class put down the book he was reading and looked at them all. His face was a network of scars, a cross on his cheek, a line across the bridge of his nose, and several more in random places. He looked sort of scary.

"I didn't tell you to sit down." His voice was gravelly, it matched his looks. "You will all sit in alphabetical order, makes it easier for me to remember your names."

"Excuse me sir, but is it by first or last name?" Erisa asked timidly.

"Last name, idiot, when have people ever been put in order of first name?"

"Sorry, I just, I wasn't, I didn't think."

"You don't look like you do, just move."

The class moved round, This unfortunately split up Tatsu Crimson and Aurora, so they couldn't talk to each other. It also put John and Tatsu right next to each other.

"Damn, I have to sit with the freak." John complained.

"You're lucky." Tatsu replied "You just have to put up with me, I've got to put up with you."

"What you say? You saying you got a problem with me?"

"Yes" Tatsu replied matter of factly "Much in the same way as you seem to have a problem with personal hygiene."

"That does it! Let's go! You and me, right now!"

The teacher had moved to stand in front of the arguing pair. "Stand up, come to the front." The pair obediently followed, expecting to be in trouble. "You've challenged him to a fight?" The teacher asked, nodding first at John, then at Tatsu."

"Yeah, cos he won't shut his smart mouth."

"Do you accept this fight?" The teacher asked Tatsu.

"What?" Then Tatsu remembered the rules lay down that morning "Yes, I accept."

Erisa sat with her hands clasped together, she looked concerned.

"The loser has to remain silent for the rest of the class, start." The teacher stepped backwards.

Tatsu assumed a defensive crouch. Whereas John simply stepped forwards and swung. Tatsu blocked high and stepped inside Johns guard, he delivered a solid punch to the blondes nose.

"Fight's over, you lose" The teacher pushed John back to his seat, ignoring the fact that John now had a nose bleed. Tatsu walked back to his seat without any expression in particular on his face.

"I knew you'd win" Erisa whispered to him on his way past.

The teacher introduced himself as Vincent. He gave no last name. He handed a saber to each person in the class and the lesson proceeded in much the same way as Komichi's had done.

Crimson was fairly annoyed that he was away from anyone who he would talk to, and he was lacking a window to stare out of. So he figured he'd try to strike a conversation with the person next to him.

"Hey, I'm Crimson, who're you?"

The guy looked at him for a moment and said "Nikolai, now shut up, I'm listening."

Whoa, unfriendly or what? Crimson thought, and how was it more interesting to listen to Vincent drone on and on about sabers than it was to talk to him? Honestly. He took a quick glance at the person on the other side of him, she looked at him as soon as he did.

"I have no interest in talking to you, remain quiet."

Talk about an ice queen. Crimson grumbled to himself, he was by now completely bored. What exactly was the point in his dad forcing him to come to this crappy place anyway? He already knew everything there was to know about being a hunter. Well that wasn't entirely true, but he could fake it well enough.

He sighed heavily, if he'd known that classes would be so boring, he'd have stolen one of the forks from the cafeteria so he could stab things with it to pass the time.

"Is there a problem?" Vincent asked, his voice rougher and more disapproving than it normally was. Crimson however was extremely bored and felt that this was a good time to entertain himself.

"Sort of." he replied "I was under the impression that this place was going to teach us how to be hunters. Hate to say it, but this class would be alot more useful for say, weapons dealers."

"You have a problem with the curriculum? Talk to the principals, not me. Til then, stand at the front of the class so I can use you to demonstrate something."

Crap, not the way it had been planned. Crimson had been fairly certain that he would be able to make a clever and bullet proof arguement about the classes. But it seemed like the teachers here were alot less concerned about making people feel like their voice was being heard than the teachers from high school. He dutifully went to the front of the class and awaited his punishment.

"Now then." Vincent boomed "You want to know why we do theory. It's because he who sits above, the principal of Pioneer, won't let us teach otherwise. Boy, catch this." He tossed Crimson a saber. "We have to make sure you are prepared for anything, that includes things even us instructors don't see coming. Turn it on boy."

Crimson pressed the switch for the saber. Without even a hum of warning it exploded, the metal shards embedding themselves in his hand and the heat blistering his forearm.

"Things like this can happen with any piece of equipment." Vincent continued "So first we teach you how to see if your equipment is up to scratch. Then we'll see about teaching you how to swing it around. You're dismissed for lunch."

Everyone filed out of the classroom, Tatsu and Aurora waited behind for Crimson. They had expected words to be exchanged between him and Vincent. But there were none, Crimson walked out of the class at the end of the rush of students, cradling his injured hands. Aurora was the first to say something.

"Oh my god! Are you okay Crimson? That was so unfair, he could have killed you! Are you okay? let me see!"

"I'm fine." Crimson replied, wincing as Aurora picked shards of metal out of his hand. "And I knew it was going to do that."

"You knew, and you still pressed the switch?" Tatsu raised an eyebrow "I think you didn't know and don't want to look stupid."

"Haha, maybe, but I knew something like that was going to happen. My own fault for trying to be so smart." Crimson flexed his fingers as Aurora used her healing technique to repair the damage. "That kinda tingles."

"So you do have some humility in you?" Tatsu said "There's hope for you yet."

"Like hell there is!" Crimson replied indignantly "I'm going to continue to complain about this place until the day they throw me out of here."

Tatsu rolled his eyes. "I'm sure you will, and may god have mercy on us all when it comes to the attention you'll draw because of it."

"Nevermind." Aurora smiled brightly "We've got lunch to get to, C'mon before everyone eats all the good stuff."

"That'll be the day, nobody in their right mind would eat all of those fried things that you like so much." Crimson joked as they walked off down the corridor.

An unnoticed dark eyed youth leaned back against the wall. "Crimson... So that's who you are. You'll be no challenge."


	6. The Forces Arts

Not been writing recently... exploring other creative outlets... In other news, it would appear that I suck at pretty much everything... that is all.

Crimson Tatsu and Aurora hurried to the cafeteria, they were slightly dismayed to see than almost everyone was already sat down and eating, this left very little chance of anything good being left.

There was no pizza left, that was predictable, there were also no chips, no chicken and actually pretty much nothing left that was made of meat. Tatsu, being rather majorly carnivorous was pretty ticked off. But Aurora was still in high spirits.

"See, loadsa fried things left." She smiled happily, ignoring how very unimpressed Tatsu was. And continued to smile up until the point when a particularly large person piled their plate high with the remainder of the fried things, leaving absolutely none for anyone else.

"Oh my god! did you two see that? they took all my food!" Aurora wailed at Tatsu and Crimson.

"Umm calm down, you can just eat some of these... uhh... grey, slimy looking whatevers." Crimson suggested lamely.

But Aurora was on the move already, cutting though the line to reach the fried things thief. She caught up with them and tugged at their sleeve.

"Umm excuse me, but those things you've got on your plate are one of my favorites, and there aren't any left, could you please let me have some?" She said, doing her very best impression of a hungry puppy.

The huge person turned round and looked down at Aurora, who was currently trying be as much of a sweet little girl as she could manage, it was something she was good at and it usually worked. "I know who you are." The person said, in a voice that gave the impression that she was just a little bit slow "You're that little runt I got as a rival." Evidently this was Violet Persimmon, Aurora's immediate impression was that she had lied about her weight.

"Yes, i'm Aurora, hello." Aurora continued smiling, hoping to god that Violet wasn't going to hurt her too much.

"Huh, dunno why you don't just give up and go home now, you're way too little to be any good."

At this point Crimson had managed to push his way through the line to be next to Aurora.

"Hey Aurora, who's the ugly chick?" He asked.

"Crimson, this is Violent, I mean Violet Persimmon." Aurora tried desperately to maintain some level of polite friendliness.

"Ohhh, yeah I remember her, whats up violet? You do know you're going to get fat if you eat all of those, well, I mean fatter, obviously."

Crimson was smiling broadly whilst Violet was turning red and was just about ready to swing at him. Aurora however was turning pale, she'd never really been one for fighting, and had been hoping that the matter could be solved in a non violent fashion, all hope of that had disappeared at approximately the same time that Crimson had opened his mouth, and he didn't seem to be finished yet.

"Hey, red suits you ya know, it hides some of that horrible acne you've got just there."

In an extremely fast motion Violet grabbed Crimsons pointing finger , tugged him forwards by it and slammed her knee into his nose. She followed up by delivering solid punches to the side of his head.

"You smart mouthed little shit! I'll kill you!" She aimed a kick at Crimsons knees, which he managed to avoid by spinning away from her. A small amount of distance had now been established between the two, giving Crimson a moment to gather himself.

He balanced on the balls of his feet, and brought his hands up to shoulder height, ready to either strike, block or dodge. He was the first to move, his kick landed squarely in Violets mid-section, driving her backwards, her guard was up, so Crimsons punches fell against her arms.

By this time absolutely everyone had noticed the fight and were cheering and placing bets, somewhere in the crowd Tatsu was trying to push his way to the front, but people were unwilling to give up their vantage points. With the distance between the two combatants closed, the fight had lost almost any technical aspects and was now nothing more than a brawl. Crimson had the edge, but was starting to lose it due to Violets weight advantage.

Both combatants jumped backwards as a ball of fire scorched the air between them. It had come not from Aurora, but from a small boy who was looking at both of the fighters with dark and serious eyes.

"I thought the counciling sessions were helping you Violet." He said in a flat monotone.

"Yeah, but there's only so much shit I can take from one little punk kid." Violet snarled, The boy turned to look at her directly.

"You will keep your temper, or you will be punished, is that understood." The pitch of the boys voice never changed even by a single octave, there was no accent or inflection.

"Yes Hokanu." Violet said through gritted teeth. Now that Violet was suitibly cowed Hokanu turned his attention to Crimson.

"I don't know you, but if you start a fight with Violet again, I will take her side, you don't want that to happen, trust me." And with that almost solemn threat dangling in the air Hokanu motioned for Violet to come with him and left.

The crowd grew quickly bored now that the entertainment had left and they dispersed rapidly. A fair few of them muttering about how unfair it was that the fight was broken up. Crimson was feeling much better as a result of Auroras healing techniques, but was about to feel worse as Tatsu made his way over.

"You look a mess" Tatsu said, looking Crimson up and down "Tell me, did you ever bother learning to fight? Or did you just figure it was a matter of throwing your weight around."

Crimson sighed "I've had light training as a ranger, generally speaking those of us who shoot at things instead of stabbing them don't get within arms reach."

"That's an excuse and you know it" Tatsu scoffed "That girl was off balance, angry and slow, if you'd have had any idea what you were doing, she wouldn't have been able to touch you."

"Alright, fine, whatever." Crimson held his hands up in a gesture of defeat "I admit that I totally suck at close combat, and have just been thoroughly embarrassed by a girl."

"Well." Tatsu said thoughtfully "I wouldn't say you were thoroughly embarrassed, at least you didn't just hold your nose and cry or something."

"Me? Cry? You'd never catch me doing that, I'd run off to my room first" Crimson grinned, and then caught sight of Aurora "Hey, umm what are you doing?" He asked.

"Just getting lunch." Aurora replied cheerfully, what she was actually doing was collecting up any fried things that hadn't touched the ground much, or been trodden on during the course of the fighting. This didn't really bother Crimson, but Tatsu gave a resigned sigh at how pathetic it must look to those who were still in the area.

It took Crimson a whole half an hour after leaving the cafeteria to realise that he hadn't eaten all day. He was now being quite vocal in his objection to starvation.

"I'm hungry, I want food, can't we go back to the cafeteria?"He whined.

"No." Aurora replied "We've only got a few minutes till the next class, you should have said something while we were there."

"I would have done, except I was too busy getting my ass kicked defending you."

"Did I ask you to help? Don't think I did, sorry if it seemed to you like I'm just a helpless little girl in desperate need of somebody to fight my battles for me."

"What?" Crimson snorted indignantly "I never said anything like that, I helped you out because I think of us as friends."

"What's this?" Tatsu asked, from behind the pair, he sounded to be in unusually good humour. "Lover's tiff? Want me to leave for a while?"

"Ah, Tatsu, where'd you come from?" Aurora all but jumped.

"Same place I went to, cafeteria, got us some drinks." Tatsu held up three brightly labeled bottles, the labels proclaimed the drink to be Smash, with three exclaimation marks. Tatsu handed one to Crimson and one to Aurora.

"Cheers." Crimson thanked him as he unscrewed the lid, he sniffed the contents of the bottle with some suspicion. "What is this anyway?"

"It's a well balanced cocktail of flavour and nutrients." Tatsu said happily as he took a big gulp of his own drink "It's exactly what a busy person on the go needs to get them through the day."

"Err, actually I meant what flavour, not what the advertising campaign was."

"Oh, this and that, never seems to taste the same twice, mostly fruit though." Tatsu said with a shrug.

"Fair enough, can't be that bad, seems like its a drug to you though." Crimson took a tentative sip "Hey, this is pretty good." He took a big swig of it.

"You guys think its good?" Aurora asked, sounding slightly incredulous "You can have mine then, it tastes way too chemical for me." Tatsu snatched the bottle away from her just a fraction of a second before Crimsons hand passed through the space where the drink used to be. Which was fair enough in Crimson's opinion, Tatsu had been the one who paid for the drinks in the first place.

"So?" Tatsu asked "What dya think the next class will be?"

"Well, We've already had basic fitness, Ranger training, Hunter training." Crimson ticked them off on his fingers "So I suppose it's going to be either martial arts, or Force arts."

"Here's hoping its martial arts." Tatsu was now bouncing around "I've got energy to burn, bit of a workout would be good."

It turned out that Tatsu was to be disappointed, as everyone crowded into the classroom, it became obvious that the lesson would be in the Force's arts. The room was far diffrent to any of the other teaching rooms, which were fairly standard. This room had no chairs, no desks, there were only rough square mats for the students to sit on. The teacher too was obviously a force, her long flowing robes, the serious look on her face, her hair, almost as white as Tatsu's despite her youthful appearance, and the air of mystery around her were pretty much typical of those adept at the various combat techniques or "magic" which technology had opened to humans.

"Good evening students." The teacher smiled at them "I am Altessa Zelpher, I will be teaching you the Force's arts."

The students had variying reactions to this news, a few of them groaned, some looked indiffrent, but most seemed very excited about the idea. Especially Aston who could barely contain his enthusiasm as he furiously scribbled down every detail of the room, he seemed intent on having a written record of every single movement.

His sister however was one of those who seemed to be indiffrent, Erisa walked towards Altessa and handed her a note. The teacher read the note quickly and nodded once.

"Very well, you're excused from the lessons."

Erisa bowed slightly and left the room without a word.

"What do you think that was about? Tatsu asked Crimson as he watched Erisa leave the room.

Crimson shrugged in response "You'll just have to see if you can figure it out."

"What do you mean by that?" Tatsu asked suspiciously "You know something don't you? How come you know why Erisa doesn't have to attend? You haven't even talked to her."

"Ah ah ah, we don't ask about a girls secrets do we now? You'll just have to ask her yourself."

"You're being very evasive Crimson..."

"Well evasion is a good trait for a ranger isn't it?"

"I give up, I don't really care anyway." Tatsu resumed paying attention to the teacher, just as she was telling the rest of the class to quieten down and listen.

"Umm I don't really have a lesson plan as such, so could someone please tell me how the other teachers did their first lesson?"

"It was boring." John said loudly "They just taught us safety crap, if this class is going to be like that then I'm walking."

"That does sound boring." Altessa agreed "Anyway, you don't need to know any weapon safety for this class, unless you think you could manage to injure yourself with your mind." She giggled a little. "So lets get straight into things shall we?"

There were mutterings round the room, almost all of them were approving, it appeared that everyone had got somewhat bored of the safety lectures and the entire class was ready to do some practical.

"Okay, everyone take a mat." Altessa instructed "On each mat there should be a medical injector, does anybody not have one?" Everybody took a mat and picked up their injector "Good, now some of you might not like this, but could you please inject the contents of the injector into yourself, I suggest injecting at the neck."

Most students did so after only a moments hesitation, but Tatsu just pressed it to his neck and did nothing.

"Is there a problem Mr. umm?"

"Littlewing, Tatsu Littlewing" Tatsu replied quietly

"Okay, Tatsu, is there something wrong with your injector?"

"I don't think so Ma'am" Tatsu replied, acutely aware of the fact that everyone in the entire room was looking at him.

Altessa walked over and knelt down next to Tatsu. "What's the matter?" She asked gently, in a low voice so that the rest of the class was excluded from the conversation.

"I can't do it..." Tatsu paused after this admission "I hate injections"

"I'll do it." Altessa whispered to him, she picked up his injector and made a show of examining it for faults. She then placed it against Tatsu's neck, He held his breath. A quick squeeze of the trigger and it was over. Tatsu however had turned quite pale and didn't seem to remember how breathing worked.

"It wasn't that much of a problem Tatsu, just a blocked needle end, that's all."

Tatsu was inwardly grateful to Altessa for not letting the class know about his fear of injections. He was fairly certain that John Kayden would never let him live it down, and Crimson wouldn't be too merciful on the subject either.

"Okay, I'm surprised nobody asked what was in the injectors." Altessa said once she had returned to the front of the class "For all you know they could have been filled with poison, maybe we do need a lesson on safety?" she giggled at the looks of horror on some of the students faces "I'm joking, they contained chemicals to enhance certain functions of the brain, ones that are usually dormant. Those particular chemicals enable the use of Barta. Does anyone know what that is?"

Aurora put her hand up, hers was not the only hand in the air, but it was the first.

"Yes, miss?"Altessa gestured towards Aurora

"Aurora Tasai-Quin Rylath Dorphin Tals Sytheria, 12 of 59"

"Ah, I expect a perfect answer from you then."

Aurora nodded "Barta are ice techniques, there are three major ways that they are employed, but the mechanics behind it are always the same, the temperature of the air is reduced by removing the heat energy from it, if a sufficiently talented person uses the technique they can cause the humidity in the air to freeze into shards of ice, and by proper manipulation, these shards are propelled at an enemy."

"Very good Aurora, I see you learned something from your parents." Altessa smiled.

"Actually I learned from books and data files, none of my parents really had much time for me, you know, 58 brothers and sisters."

Altessa gave a small laugh "Well it was a good answer, I hope everyone was listening" She addressed the whole class. "Any questions?"

"Yeah" Somebody at the back of the room asked "Does this mean we can chuck bits of ice around whenever we want?"

"No no no, you have to train your mind. It's like using a set of muscles that you haven't ever used before. For most of you, these are new chemicals, things your brain won't have had any experience with, so it'll be hard for you to use techniques to begin with. Any newmans in the class will find it easier, your bodies naturally produce small amounts of technique enabling chemicals, so you should have an easier time of it."

"So how do we "train our minds"" The same student asked.

"I don't know." Altessa replied "It's different for different people, some people never get the hang of it. For now, I want you all to imagine that the air infront of you is very very cold, freezing. Don't just imagine it, believe it, OK? I want you all to try now."

Many of the students looked dubious, but they all settled themselves down and did as they were told. Crimson adopted a cross legged sitting position, and tried to think the coldest thoughts he could. He thought of when he was a small child, getting food from the freezer in his house. At the time it was the coldest thing he knew of, he couldn't imagine anything colder.

Altessa was walking about the classroom, stepping in front of each student. She tapped Crimson on the shoulder, he opened one eye.

"You're doing really well, do you have newman blood?" Crimson noticed that the air in front of him now contained tiny ice crystals where his breath had frozen, it was only directly infront of him, once his breath went a foot to either side, it became invisible again. He reached his hand out and felt that there was a noticable chill in the air. But it soon passed once he lost his concentration.

"No, no newman blood at all." He replied to Altessa's query.

"Sorry to disturb you, please keep trying." Altessa smiled at him and resumed her walk around the classroom.

After about ten minutes of this silent concentration John Kayden got to his feet and began to walk towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Altessa asked softly.

"I've had enough of this bullshit, you get us to drug ourselves up with god knows what, then you want us to all sit here and think nice cold thoughts? Well nothings happened, I'm bored, and I'm outta here."

"Please don't bother yourself with coming into the next lesson either then." Altessa said "I'm sure it would just bore you, but bear in mind that techniques will be part of the examination at the end of the month."

John said nothing, but simply slipped out of the door and slammed it behind him.

After five more minutes Tatsu, having had very little success, was about ready to agree with John, but then again he wasn't the only student who didn't seem to be having any luck. So far only Aurora, Crimson and 4 others had managed to manifest any noticable effect on the air. Altessa called a stop to the meditation and instructed everyone to talk to each other about what they had been thinking about and what had happened.

Aurora recieved most of the attention, not surprising seeing as how she was the only person who had managed to freeze anything that wasn't her own breath, she was quite delighted to answer everybodies questions while showing of the small pile of snow that she had generated, which was quite rapidly causing a puddle. Ashton differed from most of the other students in that he flitted from person to person, recording everyone's findings on his ever present note pad.

After the information exchange Altessa dismissed them, even though it was half an hour before the class officially ended, she said she didn't see the point in keeping them locked up when they should be out enjoying the evening.

As Tatsu was leaving the classroom he was set upon by Erisa. Well, not exactly set upon, in actuality she timidly tugged at his sleeve as he was walking to catch up to Crimson and Aurora.

"Oh, hello Erisa." He greeted her "What's up?"

"Umm I just wanted to know what happened in the class." Erisa said, blushing slightly.

"Nothing interesting really" Tatsu said dismissively "We had to have an injection of some chemical or other, and then we were all told to think about freezing the air in front of us."

"Oh, did anything happen?" Erisa asked with genuine curiosity.

"Not for me, no. A few others managed to get something to happen, but it just didn't work for me." He neglected to mention the jealousy he felt because his two friends could make it work but he couldn't. "If you want to know about it you should ask your brother, I'm sure he's killed a few more tree's with all the notes he took."

Erisa rolled her eyes "Ashton writes too much, it's just how he learns, he writes down every word that's said to him and he looks through it all later. I think it's boring."

"I don't know." Tatsu mused "I think it's a pretty good way to make sure he doesn't miss anything."

"W-w-well yes, of course, I mean I never said it was stupid of him, I just mean I" Erisa blushed and looked down at her feet "You must think I'm being so dumb."

"Not at all, you just need to be more confident in yourself, you didn't seem this shy the first time I talked to you."

"Hehe sorry, I try to be more sure of myself, but umm... nevermind, umm there aren't anymore lessons today, and it's only about five o'clock so I-"

"5 O'clock?" Tatsu said "Hey, sorry about this, but I really have to go, I'm supposed to be somewhere today." He ran off waving goodbye."

"-was wondering if you would like to hang out with me or something..." Erisa finished quietly. She sighed and began walking slowly back to her room.


	7. A Midnight Encounter

Hehe, I will continue to proclaim my suckyness even after I become a world famous author who is making millions just from merchandise alone. Some people may have missed my earlier note, but I still need character ideas, really, every time I use random student, I'd rather that student had a personality.

Crimson stood leaning against the wall next to the door of Aurora's room. His arms were folded as he looked around impatiently. Aurora had wanted him to see her room, but insisted that he had to give her some time to get everything sorted out. Crimson could understand that, except for two small details, Aurora had a smaller bag of possessions than he did, so why was it taking her so long to get everything as she wanted it? And if she was worried about him seeing her room in a mess, why? she'd never been in there before now.

He was only left waiting for another couple of minutes, bringing the total waiting time to somewhere about ten.

"Okay, you can come in now" Aurora said, swinging the door fully open "Taa-daa, what dya think?"

crimson blinked twice in rapid succession as he took in the rooms appearance. He had expected a few homey touches, pictures of family or friends, maybe a poster or two featuring a favorite band or movie. In actuality it seemed now impossible that this room was once identical to his own. A large mat covered the floor, it's woven pattern a multitude of colours arranged in concentric circles. The only thing that could qualify as furniture was the closet which was still in one corner, and a large beanbag that had been placed in another. The rest of the floorspace was taken up by tall iron braziers, which were currently unlit. On the whole the room was very dark, but in a comfortable sort of way.

"Uhh what did you do with the bed?" Crimson finally asked.

"Oh I just stored it away, I might want it later, but probably not." Aurora replied, as if the mysterious disappearance of a large piece of furniture were an everyday occurrence.

"And all this stuff?" Crimson continued his line of questioning "No way could all of this have been stashed away in that little bag of yours."

"Yeah I know, that's why I have this thing." Aurora reached into her bag and pulled out a non-descript grey cube, approximately a foot along each edge. She passed it to Crimson "Storage cube, see?"

Crimson flipped the cube over and spun it round a few times, it was pretty heavy, like it was solid all the way through, the only feature that the cube sported was a small flip down control panel, which consisted of all of 4 buttons.

"So you put the bed in this thing huh?" Crimson said, speaking in rhetorics "Would have thought that would have made it pretty heavy." Aurora reached over and pressed one of the buttons on the cubes side. Abruptly the thing seemed to weigh half a ton.

"Yup, pretty difficult to steal too, as long as it's switched off and locked." Don't break it though, they're really expensive." Aurora sat down on her bean bag with a fwoosh, and indicated that Crimson should join her there.

"How come you have one if they cost so much?" Crimson asked "Are you secretly a millionaire or something?"

"No, dummy." Aurora jokingly smacked him over the head "I only got it last week,parting gift from my parents."

"Oh I see, so you're not rich, it's just your parents are loaded." Crimson said, grinning broadly.

"Well they'd have to be, we're a big family." Aurora laughed. Then her voice took a serious tone "Actually it's a pretty expensive gift even for them. I think they only gave me it because they don't expect to see me again."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well they all work in the main lab, lots of classified stuff, civilians aren't allowed in, and hunters can only go there on business. It's not encouraged for the scientists to leave the complex either, wrong words to the wrong people could lead to really big problems."

"I see." Crimson then decided to ask the other thing that was on his mind "If you have 58 brothers and sisters, then why aren't any of them here at the academy?"

"Most of them are dead." Aurora answered, no trace of bitterness in her voice, but perhaps some regret.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked." Crimsons apology was genuine.

"No, no, it's okay, I think about 40 of them were never even alive, the whole gene splicing process doesn't always work. A few more died shortly after they were removed from the vats, their biology wasn't sound. If I remember rightly only 8 subjects survived as living babies."

"You're pretty lucky then, odds of about 1 to 6 on surviving."

"Not really, some genetic combinations have a better chance of working than others, I think mine was about ninety percent."

"Well alright then, I'm pretty lucky."

"Huh? What makes you say that?" Aurora was genuinely intrigued by the sudden change of tone.

"Well if I hadn't met you, I'd have nobody but Tatsu to hang out with."

"Crimson!" Aurora laughed, smacking him over the head again "That's mean, Tatsu is a lovely person."

"Nah." Crimson waved his hand dismissively "He's a grouchy old man most of the time, it's my mission to get him to lighten up before he dies of premature old age."

"You only say that because you're so immature." Aurora said accusingly.

Crimson held his hands up in defeat "Okay, you've got me, I admit I know how to have fun, and I apologise."

"You sure about that?" Aurora whispered in his ear "You and me could have some real fun right now."

Crimson flushed a deep red and sat in embarrassed silence. Aurora kept the pretence going for a few more moments before collapsing into helpless laughter.

"Ohmigod! haha you're soooo easy! hahaha the look on your face!" She rolled on the floor in choking sobs of laughter. Crimson watched, unimpressed, until Aurora got off of the floor and wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes.

"Are you quite done?" Crimson asked

"Yeah, I think so." Aurora stifled a small giggle.

"Who's immature now?"

"Umm." Aurora tilted her head to one side, one finger against her temple "Still you?"

"You know what Aurora? You suck."

"Suck what?" Aurora asked, putting on an air of innocence. She then doubled up laughing again as she caused Crimson to blush twice in as many minutes.

It was late at night when Tatsu finally returned to the academy grounds, so late that he was more than a little surprised to see another person crossing the grounds. They moved quietly, but not with obvious stealth. Tatsu thought he had crept up on the person, but evidently not, as they turned to face him the moment he got within touching distance, touching distance if he held a saber.

"Hi." Tatsu said, pulling up short, just incase this wasn't a student and happened to be a wandering madman. He certainly looked the part, his eyes didn't appear to be focused on Tatsu, but rather somewhere in the distance, his clothes lacked any style or make, they were about as non-descript as clothing could get. The thing that stood out the most about this person was the rounded gemstone embedded in a jagged scar on his forehead.

Noticing the lack of response Tatsu tried again "Hello?"

The person turned away from him and resumed walking. Tatsu's interest was now piqued.

"Why are you out walking at this time of night?" He asked

The person turned to face him again "Sleep is for the dead." He replied, his voice was sullen and held only a hint of an accent that Tatsu couldn't place.

"Okaaay" Tatsu backed up a step "Are you a student here?"

"Yes"

"Me too, Tatsu Littlewing" Tatsu held his hand out.

The stranger looked down at Tatsu's hand. "I am Aun'shi M'yen Mont'ka."

"Right, so what are you doing out here?"

"I tire of pointless chatter." Aun'shi turned away and walked off at a brisk pace.

"I tire of pointless chatter." Tatsu mimicked childishly "Who does he think he is?"

Tatsu resumed the trip back to his room, there were classes tomorrow and he would be needing his sleep. He reflected on his encounter with Aun'shi, anywhere else he would have been considered very very odd, but here at the academy, variety was standard. Tatsu was a people watcher and he had idly observed many strange things in his first day of lessons.

Crimson shifted uncomfortably in his bed. A tingling sensation was spreading up his left leg as a result of Aurora's decision to use his legs as a pillow for the night. Try as he might, Crimson could not get comfortable, Aurora was a woefully light sleeper and attempting to change his position in any significant way was certain to wake her up.

Crimson usually slept on his side but which side was subject to change, so he was stuck on his left when at the present moment he would much rather be on his right. He attributed his restlessness to being away from home, it wasn't something he was used to, and he knew that alot of people felt uncomfortable sleeping in new places.

But it was more than that, the days events were running through his mind, some of the things were so familiar, not directly of course, but they put him very nearly in mind of something else, something he couldn't quite place. No matter how much he wracked his brain he couldn't think of what it was that was nagging at him. It was vauge to the extent that he couldn't even place what it was that was familiar. He resigned himself to a night of restless sleep while his brain ran in pointless circles.

Aurora shifted in her sleep, which finally allowed him to move his tingling leg, he felt a flush of heat as the blood started to circulate properly again, however Aurora didn't move all that far, and Crimson was still stuck sleeping on his left.

"Glad to see you can sleep so soundly..." Crimson muttered sourly to himself and closed his eyes, waiting for either sleep or the morning, whichever came first.

Yeah, short chapter, so sue me... It was either that or continue into the next day, which would result in several thousand more words and thus take even longer to finish, and nobody likes to wait for updates.

Sorry Magus, Aun'shi speaks, just not much, and hardly ever in public, he just seemed like too serious a character, and you can't take somebody seriously if they communicate via signs (thinking of a certain panda)


End file.
